. NOTE. THE incidents of this story are chiefly facts. This is specially true of those things that may to some readers appear forced or exaggerated. The facts, however, do not all belong to any one place, nor to the experience of any one per son. The people who live in Bluffton will doubtless recognize some touches of local scenery but, if they look to find the characters among their friends and neighbors, they will most certainly be mistaken. By bringing out in strong relief some of the evils of one phase of religion, and some of the good of the opposite, the writer would not be understood to assert that the evil is all on one side and the good all on the other. He has simply emphasized those things that were essential to his present purpose. Good and evil are both human, and not confined to any one religious type. MAY, 1878. 3 Ax THE LEVEE CONTENTS. II. ON THE STEAMER 14 III. RETROSPECT 23 IV. FIRST SUNDAY AT BLUFFTON 30 V. To THE CAVE 39 VI. THE CONVALESCENCE 52 VII. OTHER STRANDS IN THE THREAD . . . . .61 VIII. MARK AND TOM TALK 72 IX. A GAME OF CROQUET, AND WHO WON 84 X. THE MINISTER IN His WORK 96 6 CONTENTS. XL UNDERGROUND RUMBLINGS ... . . . .104 XII. MR. FORREST AND MRS. GREY 112 XIII. A SOUL COME TO JUDGMENT 123 XIV. THE OFFENCE 134 XV. MADGE ENTREATS 146 XVI. A TERRIBLE SUSPICION 156 XVII. AN EXCHANGE AT MAPLE CITY 162 XVIIL THE COUNCIL 174 XIX. TOM SPEAKS 186 XX. THE BROKEN RING 196 XXI. RECONSIDERATION 2oS XXII. THE REVENGE OF SLIGHTED LOVE 219 XXIII. ADRIFT............ 229 XXIV. A STRANGE MEETING 238 BLUFFTON A STORY OF TO-DAY. I. AT THE LEVEE. WHY do you call it Maple City said Mark, as, after an hours walk about the town, he and his friend Tom were slowly strolling down the street cut through the bluff that led to the levee. Oh I dont know, replied Tom, unless it may be for the reason that the place isnt a city, and hasnt a maple-tree in its limits. As for the matter of names, you know all the towns East have a Spruce Street, and a Pine Street, and gen erally there isnt a spruce or a pine in sight. Perhaps the mental suggestion has some shade and comfort in it. And as for your cities, Tom, I understand that all cross roads are cities out here. Yes, said he, just as the peddler shouted Hot pies because that was what they called em. They name towns here on the same principle that mothers christen their chil dren George Washington and Napoleon Bonaparte, seeming to have the notion that the quality of the name will somehow strike in, and make Congressmen out of em some day. Towns grow so fast, replied Mark, that I suppose they want the name big enough to cover the future. Now, I am assured by the committee from Bluffton that the place will at least double in five years. And if they get the Great Central Railroad, for which this and all the neighboring places are fighting, they will even double on that. drolly replied Tom. All the places They all do it, are going to double in three to five years. But, if some of them dont flat out on their expectations, theyll have to import the inhabitants of the neighboring planets to furnish people enough. And then, as to railroads, they seem to overlook one thing, that it is just as easy to get out of town on a new road as it is to get in, and that people may leave as well as come. But, at any rate, said Mark, it indicates the young blood, the vigor, the hope, of a great nation whose life is ahead, a prophecy, and not a page in history illustrated by ruins. A burly, growing boy is always extravagant he always wants the biggest boots and trousers he can get, be cause he feels the undeveloped man in him, and wants to appear like one. Little old men I never took to anyhow...